I've had someone tell me they need to stay on chick crumbles. Someone else told me to put them on something called "3 way, 9 way or 13 way" Someone else said they need scratch. Someone else said they need cracked corn/whole corn. Someone else said they need pellets. Please help, what are they supposed to be eating??? E T A : they are 3 months old
The "shape" of the feed is not important. Crumbles, mash, pellets are all shapes. They don't determine content, per se. You have a choice. You can continue to feed starter or starter/grower or a raiser right through. There's no need for layer until you actually have eggs. Layer isn't magic. It doesn't make them lay. It merely is regular feed laced with calcium so that a laying hen has adequate calcium to spit out a daily egg. A young bird has absolutely no need for the high calcium and actually, it is quite hard and potentially damaging to the renal systems if fed too early, for too long. It isn't all that complicated. It's just that the different feed companies call stuff slightly different things. That they make different shapes is a matter what the customer prefers for their birds. A wee bit of scratch is fine, for amusement. It is usually just as expensive as feed. It is not a nutritionally complete dietary item. Some are better than others, but in any case, forget all that stuff and continue to feed them their grower or raiser or what feed your local feed store offers. You've got a long way to go, and they still need good basic nutrition.
On the back of this question....should the feed still be medicated? How long should they get the medicated?